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3 Part History of Western Painting as Seen from Manhattan

Culture means nothing else than that this substance gives itself its own self-consciousness, brings about its own inherent process and its own reflection into self.

Hegel, The Phenomenology of Spirit (1807)

A coke is a coke and no amount of money can get you a better coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the cokes are the same and all the cokes are good.

external image books?id=Rm6bwozwRaMC&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=5&edge=curl&sig=ACfU3U2vrDvACfYaoffo3RfxOfLPwjLJmAAndy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (1975)





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1. Monetization of the Figural (15th – 18th century)

Adoration of the Magi,     Sandro Botticelli c. 1475-1476
Adoration of the Magi, Sandro Botticelli c. 1475-1476

European artists learn how to use oil paint to represent the worldview of their wealthy, powerful patrons.

2. Epistemic Crisis (19th - 20th century)

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Painting turns back on itself. The patch of paint is increasingly the subject and object of art; “real” artists divest themselves of the kitsch of bourgeoisie culture; the art academy becomes the refuge of the inconsequential.
  • 1863 - French Académie des Beaux-Arts rejects Manet’s Le déjeuner sur l'herbe
  • 1917 - International Exhibition of Modern Art at the New York City National Guard Armory
  • 1955 – Clement Greenberg’s “American Style Painting” proclaims abstract expressionism the culminating movement of western art. New York is the new center of world art.
  • 1962 – Andy Warhol opens the The Factory; shot by Valerie Solanas (1968)
  • 1979 – Sex Pistol’s Sid Vicious overdoses in the Chelsea Hotel after arrest for killing (?) Nancy Spungen..

3. Remonetization of the Figural (1980 - 2008)

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Globalization of all markets. Maoism replaced by “To Be Rich is Glorious.” Any style is possible and profitable; return of Andy (briefly); hegemony of the MFA program.
  • 1979 - Julian Schnabel solo show at Mary Boone Gallery
  • February 10, 1985, Jean-Michel Basquiat on cover of New York Times Magazine: "New Art, New Money: The Marketing of an American Artist" (Basquiat overdoses in 1988)
  • 1990 – NEA vetoes grants for “NEA Four.” The Culture Wars begin.
  • May 14, 2002, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich sells Basquiat's Profit I for $5,509,500
  • Sept 15, 2008 – Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy, world financial markets freeze.


4. ??????

Thornton, Seven Days in the Art World:





Roy Lichtenstein's "I Love Liberty" (1982)
Roy Lichtenstein's "I Love Liberty" (1982)

Wall Street's Orphaned Art
By CANDACE JACKSON

  • OCTOBER 30, 2009
When Lehman Brothers, with its 158-year history as a pillar of finance, vaporized in a bankruptcy filing last year, one asset it left behind was its art collection. Assembled over many years, it's a wide-ranging selection of works, including signed prints from big names like Robert Rauschenberg, Louise Bourgeois and Roy Lichtenstein, along with others from lesser-known artists.

When the collection hits the auction block on Sunday in Philadelphia, proceeds will go to pay creditors, but they won't be throwing any ticker tape parades about being made whole. Like so much else about the Lehman legacy, the collection turns out not to be worth much. Freeman's Auctioneers & Appraisers estimates that the 283 lots for sale are worth about $750,000 in total.

Lehman has some artistic background. Its former and final CEO, Richard Fuld and his wife, Kathy, were known as avid art collectors. Mrs. Fuld sits on the board of trustees at New York's Museum of Modern Art. In November 2008, the couple auctioned 16 postwar drawings from their personal collection at Christie's, including pieces by Arshile Gorky and Willem de Kooning. The sale fetched $13.5 million, less than the auction house's pre-sale estimate of $15 million, but certainly not shabby.


Feb. 22, 2010
Superman's Debut Comic Book Issue Sells for $1 Million at ComicConnect.com





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Links

Hegel for Beginners
Monetization - Wikipedia
Oil painting - Wikipedia
Tempera - Wikipedia
Imperssionism and the Academy - Wikipedia
Armory Show of 1913 - Wikipedia
Federal Art Project - Wikipedia
Index of American Design: National Gallery of Art
Clement Greenberg - Wikipedia
Clement Greenberg's Criticism
Greenberg's "Avant Garde and Kitsch"
Greenberg's "Collage"
Greenberg's "Modernist Painting"
Helen Frankenthaler - Wikipedia
Jackson Pollock - Wikipedia
Willem de Kooning - Wikipedia
Andy Warhol - Wikipedia
Postmodern Art - Wikipedia
Sid Vicious - Wikipedia
Julian Schnabel - Wikipedia
Jean-Michel Basquiat - Wikipedia
Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Andy Warhol, 1986
trailer for the film "Basquiat"
National Endowment for the Arts - Wikipedia
see link for the "NEA Four"